Another neighbor passed away...

This death is going to impact a lot more than just a neighborhood.

He was a bishop till he passed away, he was a coach at the high school of multiple sports, he was an employer of mostly teens, he was married to a do-er which escalates his status by trillions.

I knew him 25 yrs ago when he was newly married and played ward sports with a boyfriend of mine.

I knew him 20 yrs ago when we built a house and ended up in his ward. We got split from that ward about 15 yrs and 8 ward splits ago.

He used to run the local catering business that his father-in-law owned. He employed probably every teenager that needed a job, and he never worked them on Sundays. Everyone wanted to peel potatoes for this guy.

I knew him 4 yrs ago when my oldest son was on the cheer team with his daughter. I rode to a game in Vegas with him and his wife. He was so pleasant to be around. I remember the Vegas school had a metal detector at the entrance to the football stadium. He was allowed to bypass the detector on account of his pacemaker. He was only 48ish at this time.

His wife put on the banquet for the cheer team that year. She never just does something like that. If she is involved, it is always overdone. Decorations, food, prizes. Everything is always crazy amazing. She is kind of crazy like that.

Recently, for the past 3 yrs or so, he has been in a wheelchair. His failing health required it. Something in his body was going haywire and I'm not sure if even the doctors could figure out why.

He was the bishop of his ward despite his health hardships. Lots of wards were realigned 2 weeks ago, and a lot of new bishops were called, but he remained in the leadership spot of bishop.

His greatness was made even greater because of his wife. She is a doer. She does it all. They host firesides at their house. They host a Valentines Day dinner for all the single ladies in the ward. She never slows down. She is a very creative person and uses her talents to the hilt. Which makes him look even greater as a person.

A few months ago, he was the Grand Marshall of our local parade.

For years, he helped coach the baseball and basketball teams. The past few years, his wheelchair was parked at the end of the team bench by the wall. I would walk past him in his chair several times a night to get to a place to take pictures of my kids at halftime or whatever. Each and every time I greeted him, he made me feel like I was his favorite person in the world.

That's the kind of guy he was.

That's why the line to his viewing will be out the door, down the street, and around the corner.

Even though he lives a mile away from me, we were some of the first people to build in this area of our town. That makes us neighbors, still.

I can't help but wonder what might have happened if our high school basketball team had won their game on Thursday. (which I looked for him in his chair, but he wasn't on the sideline with the team.) That would have put our team playing on Friday night. Friday night is when, I believe, he had a heart attack. The word was spreading fast about him on Saturday, and if our team had made it to the championship game (which they were sort of expected to) would they have ended up playing it? I know that I would not have been able to play if my beloved coach was in the hospital.

As I understand it, the EMT's revived him and he was put on life support. His family was able to say good bye before they took him off of life support on Sunday.

He has 5 kids, the youngest is a Junior in high school. His next youngest had her mission farewell 2 weeks ago. She was supposed to enter the MTC for a mission to Mexico tomorrow.

My heart breaks for this family and the community.

This loss is huge.